urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:zodarzoneWelcome to the ZodarZone.It's a terrible thing!Jeremy2015-03-23T18:55:45Zurn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:zodarzone:290322War Journal Entry number 999 - Mourning2015-03-23T16:11:40Z2015-03-23T18:55:45Z&quot;Death is a release from and an end of all pains: beyond it our sufferings cannot extend: it restores us to the peaceful rest in which we lay before we were born. If anyone pities the dead, he ought also to pity those who have not been born. Death is neither a good nor a bad thing, for that alone which is something can be a good or a bad thing: but that which is nothing, and reduces all things to nothing, does not hand us over to either fortune, because good and bad require some material to work upon. Fortune cannot take ahold of that which Nature has let go, nor can a man be unhappy if he is nothing.&quot;<br />- Seneca<br /><br />Mourning is not only the act of saying goodbye, but also forgiving myself for the things I didn&#39;t do. I&#39;ve never been good at that part, at forgiving myself. I know for a fact that I could have done better, I&#39;ll never believe otherwise. I know people are trying to help when they say I did all that I could. I just have to accept the reality.<br /><br />Times like this make me envy religious and spiritual people. It would be nice to take comfort in some after-existence, but death is an ending. It just is. Those that die only live on in the thoughts and memories of the survivors. We honor them by being better for our time with them.<br /><br />And I just keep thinking about friends that have lost children, and am impressed by their strength. I couldn&#39;t handle that.<br /><br /><p><img src="http://ic.pics.livejournal.com/zodarzone/9021429/2808/2808_original.jpg" /></p><p>(Photo by Becca)</p>urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:zodarzone:290301War Journal Entry number 998 - Slave Leia? More like Bad-ass Leia2015-03-02T18:58:29Z2015-03-02T18:58:29ZI was around six when Star Wars: Return of the Jedi came out, but it was certainly memorable. I had already seen the other movies so I was going into it already loving the main characters, and that included Princess Leia. She was a strong, competent leader. Even when she needed help it wasn’t owing to weakness on her part; they were simply situations where anyone would need help. Her famous plea to Obi-Wan that he was her only hope wasn’t for herself. No, it was for the entire Rebellion.<br /><br />The scenes of Leia dressed in the now famous “Slave Leia” costume didn’t fill me with lust because I was too young to think of it sexually. Instead I saw it as being similar to how Jabba the Hutt was treating Han Solo. Like Han, she was being put on display so Jabba could demonstrate his power. He was being cruel and disrespectful towards her, which were ways to demonstrate his villainy. He was trying to break her spirit but was using different methods than Darth Vader had used. And none of it worked.<br /><br />But all this did was show her strength. Her spirit was not broken. She didn’t retreat into fear or shame. And she didn’t just sit passively waiting for rescue. When opportunity arose she took it, and she dealt with her captor in a direct and deserved manner. Then she got up and joined the fight. She was not a slave, not to Jabba and not to anyone else.<br /><br />But here we are over 30 years later and many people don’t seem to get it. Fan art and cosplayers often portray “Slave Leia” as being very passive. Heck, even officially licensed art plays in this arena. The cover to the Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga video game has her in the slave costume winking playfully as she leans against a downed Clone Trooper. Leia never played the “look at how cute I am” game. She could be friendly, even flirty, but that presentation of her displaying herself, especially on something directed at kids, shows how completely the point has been missed.<br /><br />The point is that Princess Leia is strong, intelligent, competent, compassionate, and a royal bad-ass. Demean her, and she will choke you to death. You should respect her no matter what she is wearing, and that goes for everybody else too.urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:zodarzone:289847War Journal Entry number 997 - Macho2015-01-20T22:32:12Z2015-01-20T22:32:50ZI always feel guarded around heterosexual cis men. As soon as I find out that someone is gay, bi, trans, or in some other way queer then I relax a bit. One of the reasons that the <a href="http://the-tusk.com/2015/01/09/ice-balls/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">Ice Balls essay on The Tusk</a> resonated with me is that men do have it rough too, but you shouldn&rsquo;t pity them because they are the ones that are making it difficult on each other. Men are the source of the problems, the expectations, and the values with which men find themselves burdened. (Women, on the other hand, get policed on how they fit gender roles by both men and women, so it is even more difficult on them.) (And while men are sometimes policed by women, well, where do you think the women got those ideas about gender roles?)<br /><br />All of the positive qualities of manliness that I can think of are just simply positive qualities for ANY human being. Gender isn&rsquo;t a factor. That&rsquo;s why I have no desire to be considered &ldquo;a good man.&rdquo; Instead I want to be thought of as &ldquo;a good person.&rdquo; Likewise I don&rsquo;t care about accusations that I&rsquo;m not &ldquo;a real man.&rdquo; (I acknowledge I have it easy as I present as acceptably masculine and am rarely challenged on it.)<br /><br />The qualities that are most exclusive to men, to being a so-called &ldquo;real man,&rdquo; are wrapped up in machismo. Machismo is, at its most crass and obvious, frat-boy culture: the condescension, the hazing, and the perpetual (to the point of pathological) need to test others and one&rsquo;s own &ldquo;manliness.&rdquo; It can be more subtle, but basically it&rsquo;s the reaffirmation of classic gender roles and that shit is not good for any of us.<br /><br />And of course this is where the logical fallacies of the Scott Aaronsons (*see below) of the world fall apart. As self-identified &ldquo;sensitive nerds&rdquo; that are beset by the &ldquo;jocks&rdquo; and &ldquo;Neanderthals,&rdquo; they are being victimized by the agents of machismo, of the patriarchy. But instead of directing their anger at the establishment that creates the expectation that they enjoy sports, don&rsquo;t show emotion, and are dominant, they become resentful that women don&rsquo;t do what they want them to do. Just where is the empathy in their self-identified sensitivity? This is why nobody respects the &ldquo;Nice Guy&rdquo; - he&rsquo;s a clueless tool, just as much a user of machismo and perpetuator of the patriarchy as he is a victim of it.<br /><br /><a href='http://www.newstatesman.com/laurie-penny/on-nerd-entitlement-rebel-alliance-empire' rel='nofollow'>http://www.newstatesman.com/laurie-penny/on-nerd-entitlement-rebel-alliance-empire</a><br /><br /><a href='http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/12/mit-professor-explains-the-real-oppression-is-having-to-learn-to-talk-to-women/' rel='nofollow'>http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/12/mit-professor-explains-the-real-oppression-is-having-to-learn-to-talk-to-women/</a><br /><br />But anyway, yeah, dudes. I just don&rsquo;t fit in with those guys and find it really weird when they consider me one of them.urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:zodarzone:289565War Journal Entry number 996 - Not offended? Not surprising.2014-10-03T13:38:47Z2014-10-03T13:38:47ZIt seems that every day brings another group of people offended by something. Well, this is the internet, and expressing displeasure about something is one of the primary purposes of it, eh?<br /><br />Before wading into one of those discussions and proclaiming how you aren&rsquo;t offended and they shouldn&rsquo;t be either stop and ask yourself if you are actually a member of the targeted group. Because let me tell you, a guy not being offended by sexualized or marginalizing depictions of women isn&rsquo;t shocking. A white person not being offended by the treatment of a minority group isn&rsquo;t headline news (unless it&rsquo;s The Onion). And a straight cis individual not offended by something directed towards the LGBTQIA community isn&rsquo;t even the slightest bit world shattering. At best if you are an outsider saying how you don&rsquo;t think the thing is offensive then you just look uneducated and/or unempathetic. Yeah, that&rsquo;s the best you can come off looking.<br /><br />Alright, take for example if you don&#39;t know how an internal combustion engine works. You know gasoline goes in, a little somethin&#39;-somethin&#39; goes on, and then the car goes. Are you seriously going to get in an argument with a thirty year veteran auto mechanic about their opinion on a style of carburetor? If you are, is your reason for thinking your opinion should trump theirs because -<br />A) you are male and they are female?<br />B) you are white and they are non-white?<br />C) you are a brilliant and beautiful snowflake who is a gift unto the world?<br />If you choose A then you&#39;re sexist. If you chose B then you&#39;re racist. If you chose C then either you&#39;re lying about A or B, or you&#39;re just too stupid to live.<br /><br />For real, one of the most important things to learn is the limit of your understanding. One of the saddest things I&#39;ve come to know is that educated people often come across as less confident because they know that they do not and simply cannot know everything, but the arrogantly uneducated can come across as supremely confident because they are too stupid to realize how stupid they actually are. Back on point, if a man thinks he can know what it&#39;s like to live the life of a woman more than a woman knows, then that man is either sexist (feeling his opinion is always superior to a woman&#39;s) or he&#39;s too stupid to know that he can&#39;t know it. If a white person in America, especially a Christian white person, thinks they know what it&#39;s like to be a minority and persecuted more than, say, people that actually are minorities and persecuted, then seriously die right the fuck now you stupid fucking fuckwit fuck, with a fucking cherry on fucking top because you truly are too damn fucking stupid to live.<br /><br />You want to know what the most offensive thing in the world is? To be told that your feelings aren&#39;t valid by someone who has no understanding or respect for your life experience. That is the single most offensive thing in the world.<br /><br />And while I&#39;m saying this I have to admit I really TRULY dislike boiling everything down to &quot;us versus them&quot; or &quot;insiders versus outsiders.&quot; It just feels like lazy oversimplification to me. But the fact of the matter is that we as human beings, all of us, have limitations on what we can understand, and the more you think you know EXACTLY what it&#39;s like for people outside your circle then the less you probably actually know.<br /><br />So, yeah, maybe you&#39;re tired about hearing how one group is offended by a t-shirt sold at Wal-Mart, and another group is offended by some sports teams&#39; mascots, and yet some other group is offended by something else you think is equally sillypants. But just step away and squelch your desire to say something snarky or proclaim how since it doesn&#39;t personally offend you it shouldn&#39;t be an issue. You know, unless you really want to demonstrate what a stupid and/or shitty person you are.urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:zodarzone:289360War Journal Entry number 995 - To Jack, and to Life2014-08-29T02:23:45Z2014-08-29T02:23:45ZI’ve got an embarrassing admission to make. I didn’t like Jack Kirby’s art when I first saw it. I started reading comics in 1990, and in comparison to the “hot” artists of the time his work looked downright crude. But I was a Marvel fan, and the bedrock of Marvel rests on the backs of Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko. What that meant is I didn’t really have a choice, and I was going to have to “put up with” Kirby’s art if I wanted to really get into the heart of Marvel. (I wasn’t a fan of Ditko’s art at first either, but now my dog is named after him. That’s another discussion though.)<br /><br />So I respected Kirby’s creativity and what he had brought to Marvel. Over time I grew to appreciate his art. I figured out the visual shorthand he was using, and I saw just how much of his storytelling techniques were being employed by, well, EVERYBODY. Much of Kirby’s work I came to in order to see the original version, after having read later creators versions of the characters. But eventually I reached the point where I was actively looking for his work, driven not by having enjoyed others’ stories but for the sake of seeing his. The Eternals was the first that I can think of. What I’d seen of The Eternals by other people was never all that interesting to me, but there was an issue of it in a volume of Marvel Visionaries: Jack Kirby and it was just spectacular. It grabbed me and wouldn’t let go. After Eternals I sought out other things, I didn’t have to be familiar with it, Jack’s name was good enough for me.<br /><br />But it was within the pages of his Fourth World Saga that I fell in love with Kirby. I’d seen reference to the Anti-Life Equation in various other creators’ tales but nothing really said what it did, or if they did I missed it. I just assumed that the opposite of life was death. Everybody knows that, right? Not Jack Kirby. No, to him the opposite of life was something else. It was mind control. It was fascism. The idea that to live is to think for oneself, and to “die” was to be controlled is just one of the most beautiful sentiments I’ve ever heard. When I read that, when it hit me, I literally stopped for a couple of minutes to process it. And, damn, I just wanted to give that man a giant hug. But I can’t. I can’t even tell him that even thinking about it later brings tears to my eyes.<br /><br />Jack Kirby is most often thought of for his cosmic creativity and limitless imagination, but his humanity and compassion are the things that made him truly stellar.<br /><br />Shine on, Jack, shine on.urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:zodarzone:289094War Journal Entry number 994 - Guardians of the Galaxy QnA-style review2014-07-31T23:16:56Z2014-07-31T23:31:42Z(Disclaimer – I typically try to avoid succumbing to “nerd-rage” and focus more on the things I enjoy, but this time I couldn’t hold back.)<br /> <br /><br />Q: So, what did you think of the Guardians of the Galaxy film?<br /><br />A: I enjoyed it a great deal. It was a lot of fun. Not perfect, not original, but still enjoyable. It does fall into many of the failings that blockbuster, special-effects laden movies do, such as a dearth of female characters that are actually given any development. But overall it actually had more genuine heart to it than expected.<br /><br />Q: So was it true to the comics by Dan Abnett & Andy Lanning then?<br /><br />A: Yes and no. A number of characters have been significantly changed; others that were prominent in the comics are missing or relegated to the briefest of cameos. But I didn't really mind those changes because I liked what they did. The scale of the conflict, that blend of personal and galactic, definitely held true though. And the tone that can make you cheer or laugh at one moment and then come around and hit you in the feels in the next was also there. I love that.<br /><br />Q: Wouldn’t you say that on the surface it seems a lot like the GotG series currently being written by Brian Michael Bendis?<br /><br />A: On the surface, yes. But you’re also very, very wrong. The film gets a pass on the changes because while inspired by the Abnett & Lanning series it does not say that stuff happened. This is a fresh version, and therefore it is free to make changes. The Bendis book does directly follow the events of the older comic, it explicitly follows some of the plots, but lazily does not bother following the characterization and growth that they had. It is instead dumbing it down and simplifying everyone to a very two-dimensional degree. It’s telling that after almost a decade writing the Avengers the first thing Bendis did after leaving them was bring over an Avenger, Iron Man, to his new project. And it quickly and sadly became a buddy tale of the two white male humans while all the aliens were left in the background. I dropped it a while back, bringing in Angela was the last straw (don't get me started on that), but since then two more Avengers have joined the team! What the hell, dude? You’re off the Avengers, let it go. Meanwhile, the aliens were just as strongly featured as the human characters not only in the Abnett & Lanning series but even in the film as well. Rocket is just as awesome, and just as much a real character, as we all wanted him to be. Even Drax came across much better than I expected.<br /><br />Q: Wow, really anti-Bendis, eh?<br /><br />A: No, actually I’m not. I thought his Daredevil run was fantastic. Ultimate Spider-Man ranged from pretty-good to great. His pre-Marvel stuff is all solid. Alias and The Pulse were good steps outside of the typical superhero genre. And his legendarily prolific run on Avengers was mostly enjoyable. (I collected it off and on as it did drag on sometimes.) But I never really identified with the complaints that all the characters sound the same until he started writing X-Men and Guardians of the Galaxy, characters I’m much more familiar with. Then, yeah, totally, they all are a bunch of interchangeable puppets. Really sad. Add to that problem his penchant for frustratingly glacial pacing and complete lack of direction or purpose for both the characters and the books themselves. So, yep, I‘m done with all that. At this point I will be exceedingly hesitant to pick up anything by him again.<br /><br />Q: Ok, ok. But now I’m curious about the Drax series written by Keith Giffen, the one that led into the Annihilation crossover which was the origin for the Abnett & Lanning Guardians of the Galaxy series. That Drax series significantly changed the character without any explanation, why does that one get a pass?<br /><br />A: Because it was good. Seriously, if you’re going to make changes, then at least make them be good. And let’s be honest, the change to Drax essentially just made him into Riddick so it wasn’t exactly original, but it was a hell of a lot more interesting than the big, dumb, child-like brute he’d been portrayed as prior to that. That version had a few highlights, but was overall so underwhelming that making the character a clichéd rip-off tough-guy comes across as pure genius.<br /><br />Q: Sorry to sideline, but what about the live-action Transformers films? Those aren’t pretending that the previous versions happened so why don’t they get a pass for making changes?<br /><br />A: Are you fucking shitting me? I just said that changes should be good! Not a single change in the Transformers movies was actually good in any way. They were produced with the most superficial understanding of the property. Look, Transformers hasn’t endured for 30 years because it’s about big robots that change form and beat the crap out of each other. Tons of other things that did the same have come and gone. The Transformers have stayed strong because of compelling characters, those are what drive long-term fans, characters that you actually fucking care about. The movies had no characters, they had special effects and set pieces. Optimus Prime, who is defined by his compassion so much so that IT'S EXPLICITLY STATED THAT HIS GREATEST WEAKNESS IS THAT HE CARES TOO MUCH, is instead portrayed in the films as a brutal warrior that executes defeated opponents. That’s horrible in numerous ways, chief among them the glorification of violence. But, come on, it's like having Abraham Lincoln and Martin Luther King Jr going around beating homeless people to death with baseball bats. While wearing coats made out of puppies! Not cool, Michael Bay, totally mother-fucking not cool. So that’s just another element on top of being incomprehensible messes of action and so-called “plot” that fail on any objective storytelling scale! Fuck!! Are you trying to give me an aneurism?<br /><br />Q: …?<br /><br />A: That’s what I thought.<br /><br />Q: So… back to Guardians of the Galaxy?<br /><br />A: Totally go see it. Sure, it doesn’t redefine anything, but a heavy duty sci-fi injection into the super-hero genre is never a bad thing in my eyes. It’s not original, and it could have been a whole lot better, but what it does it does very, very well. Drax, Groot, and of course Rocket are stars, but they aren’t the only ones. The casting was brilliant all around, and so many of the characters were elevated by the actors portraying them. I'm looking at you John C Reilly! And Glenn Close was criminally underused, I hope she returns in a more prominent role if they do a Nova movie. And while Chris Pratt's portrayal of Star-Lord does totally dude-bro all over the place, I'm holding out hope that there will be an overall arc where he grows the fuck up. It's no coincidence that the character's first and last names, Peter Quill, are both euphemisms for dick. In his original appearance he was a real bastard, created to evolve over time into a true hero. And that's exactly what happened with him over the years, that is until Bendis started writing him.<br />But when all is said and done it's probably going to end up being my favorite Marvel movie so far. I'm looking forward to seeing it again sooner rather than later.urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:zodarzone:288667War Journal Entry number 992 - TF:MTMTE last two issues in brief2014-07-10T16:55:12Z2014-07-17T19:15:17ZTransformers: More Than Meets The Eye #30 continues the trend of being a complete delight from start to finish. <br /> Courtroom brawls!<br /> Giant hammers!<br /> Muppets references!<br /> Arguments over technical points of law!<br /> Identification of one's own corpse from the future!<br /> Bickering captains!<br /> Grammatical corrections!<br /> Warning systems that say "Uh-oh!"<br /> Attempts to cut off one's own arm to avoid becoming that corpse!<br /> Warning systems that say "Run for your life!"<br /> Flirting robots!<br /> Jealous robots!<br /> Acerbic doctors!<br /> Bickering scientists!<br /> And giant spaceships that suddenly disappear!<br />So much fun, I used up all my exclamation points.<br /><br />Transformers: More Than Meets The Eye #31 was even more delightfully Douglas Adams-y than usual. <br /> Chirolingual characters that communicate by holding hands.<br /> Quantum Engines that run on the improbability of faster than light travel.<br /> Lectureworlds, planets dedicated to teaching and advancing a single field of study.<br /> A play called "My Shovel, Your Face."<br /> New adages. They can't all be old.*<br /> The Necrobot and his portable apothecary.<br /> And a ship that proved itself impossible.<br /><br />*The new adage being "Nothing breaks up a standoff like a stowaway." Ah, Swerve, we love you.urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:zodarzone:288299War Journal Entry number 991 - Expressing Fandom2014-07-07T18:23:21Z2014-07-07T23:15:53ZLast week the Pop! Club meeting was about “expressions of fandom.” I said my expression of fandom is expensive. <br /><br />I started seriously collecting in 1990 at the age of 13, and since then I’ve amassed a library of books. I’m currently estimating around 20,000 comics right now. Through the 90s I also bought a lot of cards and action figures but that faded as the costs for both increased dramatically and they began taking up more space than they were worth. A number of years later there was a stretch of buying statues, because I obviously hadn’t learned my lesson about things taking up too much room and being too expensive. Seriously, the cards, toys, and statues really need to go. I probably need to look into renting a booth at a local convention. (Note: the "toys" that need sold do not include my Transformers. Screw that.)<br /><br />Recently I’ve been trying to cut down on the numbers of books I’m getting (the cost has really skyrocketed on those, overall they are 4 times or more expensive as when I started). Instead I’ve been getting more original sketches or prints from local artists. I’ve also started to get into dressing up in costume, which like all the previous expressions of fandom isn’t horribly cheap. But I have to say that this current phase is a little more social. For quite a while it was very solitary, I was buying comics and cards and toys and just taking them home. There wasn’t a ton of interaction with other people outside of in the store itself, which is something that Carol & John’s Comic Shop actually does a good job of fostering. And for me that wasn’t for a complete lack of desire either; I just had trouble finding people my age with the same levels interests. It was a lot more difficult to find like-minded people before the internet. Speaking of which, when I was buying statues and higher-end figures it was a little more regularly interactive, I was sharing photos of my purchases online in Flickr communities. As using Flickr (and photography as a whole) became more frustrating for me I dropped out of that, and my interest in the pieces quickly waned. But when I’m getting sketches and prints I’m dealing directly with the artists themselves in most cases, and some of them I’d actually call friends. And then with cosplay there is yet another group of people that I’m interacting with online and in person. Cosplay is also an outward expression; you don’t just get the outfit and then hide it under the bed. In most cases, anyway. The point is to show it off so I guess that counts as social, right?<br /><br />Probably the primary expressions of fandom that I’ve done that haven’t cost me a significant amount of money are being a member of the Pop! Comic Culture Club as well as periodically being a guest on my friend Eric Ratcliffe’s Why I Love Comics podcast. Surprisingly the cheapest things are actually the most social and interactive.urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:zodarzone:288201War Journal Entry number 990 - and furthermore2014-07-03T17:10:02Z2014-07-03T17:17:38ZI don’t understand the mindset of the people whose entire “Pro-Life” stance is centered wholly on preventing people from getting an abortion. They aren’t paying attention to why anyone would want to get an abortion and helping to address those issues, they are just stuck on stopping access. If someone is Pro-Life and was also supporting sex education, access to birth control, access to natal medical care, and welfare programs then I’d understand them, they would be acting in a consistent and logical manner. But most of these people are also opposed to all of those things too. They want to keep people uneducated and prevent access to birth control which just makes unintended pregnancies more likely. And then they don’t actually want to help with the child at all so someone with an unplanned pregnancy faces an enormous burden, which is especially greater to those already struggling financially. What these people are doing is ensuring that children are born to parents that did not want them. <br /><br />Look, the idea of knowing that your parents didn’t want you is one of the most horrendously awful things that I can imagine, and these ardent “Pro-Lifers” that are ignoring all the reasons people may want an abortion are only making it occur more often. And that’s just evil. Seriously, I don’t know what other word to use outside of evil. Fostering an environment that creates unwanted children is just the height of cruelty and puts a lie to all their lip service about “saving the children.”urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:zodarzone:287756War Journal Entry number 989 - prove it2014-07-03T17:09:07Z2014-07-03T17:10:33ZHow about everyone that wants to use religion to justify their misogyny, homophobia, and racism be forced to follow EVERY SINGLE TENET of their declared religion and not just arbitrarily pick and choose whatever they want in order to hide hate under “religious freedom?”<br /> <br />If they are really going to follow ALL OF IT then, sure, I'll take them at their word. It's bad enough that most of the passages are pretty debatable and lacking in universal interpretation, but there are just far too many rules just being ignored for me to believe anyone claiming religious objections as being anything other than a smarmy hypocrite. Instead of letting "religious freedom" be an immediate Get-Out-of-Jail-Free card how about they prove what their religion is?urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:zodarzone:287310War Journal Entry number 987 - Dark Phoenix cosplay2014-06-03T16:28:44Z2014-06-03T16:28:44Z<p>I attended Cleveland Concoction in costume, and I looked awesome. I didn't have the courage to enter the Masquerade contest, and actually didn't even get the chance to go and see it.</p><p>It was a very fun experience, but I was also very glad that it was a small convention that was close to the home. There's only a limited amount of time that you can wear an outfit like that!</p><p>Close up on the lovely make-up done by Becca<br></p><p><img src="http://ic.pics.livejournal.com/zodarzone/9021429/1748/1748_original.jpg"></p><p></p><p>The rest are under the cut-</p><p></p><p><img src="http://ic.pics.livejournal.com/zodarzone/9021429/1828/1828_original.jpg"></p><p></p><p><img src="http://ic.pics.livejournal.com/zodarzone/9021429/2287/2287_original.jpg"></p><p><br>And because the service was offered and they had the appropriate background...</p><p><img src="http://ic.pics.livejournal.com/zodarzone/9021429/2398/2398_original.jpg"></p><p>(produced by The Sci-Fi Photo Guys)</p><p>Technically that cover had Phoenix in her original green costume, but I prefer red.<br><a name='cutid1-end'></a></p><p>I've gotten some other new outfits lately, but most of those pics will be reserved for FetLife. A wig may be involved in one case. And I am continuing to plan out my Rogue costume. Exciting times!<br></p>urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:zodarzone:287218War Journal Entry number 986 - don't say it2014-05-28T17:02:32Z2014-05-28T17:02:32ZI think most of us have a list of words we don’t use or try to avoid using for various reasons. I’m not going to list all of mine here because that would rather defeat the purpose in some ways. But I got to thinking about one when I saw someone use it.<br /> <br />The word Feminazi is a charged one, and is not only divisive but also immediately associates the user, in my mind, with misogynists. The person may not be such, and in this case most certainly isn’t but it’s a word that is more associated with who uses it than who it is used to describe. Similar to other epithets for women and other oppressed groups, it’s just better to not use it. Ever. <br /><br />There are individuals and sections of every political affiliation that go aside from the core values, and feminism is no different. There are most certainly ones with whom I disagree vehemently, but calling them Nazis or any other insults would reflect more poorly on me than it would on them.urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:zodarzone:286743War Journal Entry number 985 - The problem with MRA2014-05-27T16:35:08Z2014-05-27T16:49:22Z<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: calibri;">The most insidious version of Mens Rights Activism is a classic example of smarm. In other words, it&rsquo;s bullshit. It couches itself in a fa&ccedil;ade of reasonableness that can easily entice people, and it sets itself up in such a way that any criticism, no matter how valid, is painted as antagonism or negativity. The less insidious form just reads like a white supremacist manifesto. Those guys are so convinced of their righteousness that they don&rsquo;t even bother to hide their misogyny. That makes them easier to spot, and that&rsquo;s why the first group is in some ways even more dangerous.</span></span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: calibri;">Honestly, you can probably find examples from the past of me parroting the views of the subtle MRA tract. They often convey humanist ideals, they claim that feminism just divides us further and we should look at how things apply to all people. They point out that many of the same discriminations and injustices are perpetrated against men so only discussing them in terms of women is further marginalizing those male victims. And they are quick to point out that not all men are guilty of the things being pointed out.</span></span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: calibri;">On the surface this all seems rational, but that&rsquo;s where they get you. This is all used to undermine and gaslight feminism, to keep the discussion focused on men, and to marginalize subjects and perspectives that are primarily a concern of women or people that do not fit gender norms. The humanistic ideals they claim to be concerned with are just a cover for continued misogyny, and a way to get unsuspecting, good-hearted people to help them. Again, there are likely people that support the public MRA agenda that do so with an honest desire to help humanity, but I sincerely believe that the spearheads of the movement are reactionaries afraid of losing their position of privilege.</span></span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: calibri;">To figure out their true agenda there are a couple of key areas to look at. Are they painting feminists as an enemy, or they actually targeting the patriarchy? Are they looking at specific points and making sure that the concerns of men are addressed as well, or are they looking at the overall picture of imposed gender roles? Are they steadfastly stuck in their own personal experiences, or are they acknowledging that there are a variety of valid life experiences outside of the ones that men have? Examinations like these will lead to the truth of whether they are just out to help themselves or whether they are actually trying to help society overall.</span></span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: calibri;">Stay vigilant, nothing is as dangerous as hate spread under the guise of logic and compassion.</span></span>urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:zodarzone:286597War Journal Entry number 984 - HMSlatex2014-05-18T23:07:18Z2014-05-27T19:19:03ZWhenever I&rsquo;m talking with someone unfamiliar with latex fashion the work of HMSlatex is the first that I show them.<span> Hers is unquestionably my favorite. </span><span><span>Sophie&#39;s fun and vibrant designs have over the years elevated latex to true fashion. As the cliche goes, she brought it out of the dungeons and onto the runways. And she has consistently retained an amazing balance of flirty and classy that few other designers ever approach. </span></span><br /><br /><span>Earlier today she officially announced that she was closing her shop. The news hit me harder than I would have expected. I actually heard about it from her over a week ago, and honestly I had to go through a period of mourning though I don&#39;t think is completed yet. Imagine if a favorite writer, artist or musician wa<span>s ending their career, and not only were they not producing anything new but also that there would never be any new reprints or re-releases of their past work. (In this digital age I&#39;d have to include that their writing and music would be removed from all e-distribution, including illegal ones.) I think of fashion as an art form, so this is a loss of a great artist.<br /><br />I am glad that she is stopping by choice, and is not being forced to quit by any circumstances. So I am personally happy for her to do whatever makes her happiest. I was friends with her on LiveJournal before she started her company eight years ago. I certainly don&#39;t resent her decision or expect that she owes it to her fans and customers to continue her work when she has other things she wants to do. But it is still an exceptionally sad day for fashion as a field.</span></span>urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:zodarzone:286238War Journal Entry number 983 - Going Rogue2014-05-16T17:14:31Z2014-05-16T23:28:42Z<p>I've ordered the shirt for the Rogue outfit I'm planning. Yes, it's in latex, but this time it's from my absolute favorite designer, <a target="_blank" href="http://www.hmslatex.com" rel="nofollow">HMSlatex</a>. I ordered matching shorts to make a bodysuit for wearing to places where that would be appropriate. I'll probably end up pairing it with a brown kilt and brown jacket, I'm not sure. Leather for both would be ideal but probably not going to happen. I've also been looking at gloves and leggings and tights, all in both latex and spandex, to see what may work. I won't actually be getting the shirt until July because of how many orders she already has so it will be quite a while before I need to start putting it together. I'm just excited and don't get to squee very often.</p>urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:zodarzone:286138War Journal Entry number 982 - Gender Expression2014-05-14T16:51:57Z2014-05-14T16:52:34ZFemininity and Masculinity are not polar opposites on a single scale; instead they are their own separate scales like the color balance on your television. Almost everyone has both, and whichever one they have more of becomes their dominant gender expression. It’s exactly how your picture becomes red if you have too much of that even if the other bars are in the middle. I’d personally add a third scale for androgynous traits, i.e. personality traits that are not typically considered either masculine nor feminine, but I’ll admit my desire for that is simply that I am uncomfortable with separating EVERYTHING between feminine and masculine.<br /><br />The point here is that you don’t need to choose. Seriously, you don’t. It’s not one or the other; it’s instead all at once. The balance can constantly slide, not only throughout someone’s life but from situation to situation. Accept it. Things are more fun that way.urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:zodarzone:285831War Journal Entry number 976 update - Dark Phoenix shirt2014-05-06T16:43:14Z2014-05-06T16:53:24Z<p>I finally got in the latex Dark Phoenix shirt from Vengeance Designs, and it should be obvious why I was so excited. It looks awesome, it feels awesome, and it makes me look and feel awesome. Fiery hot.</p><p>I&#39;ll probably do some make-up as well as something with my hair when I wear it for any events. I also need to get a new kilt to go with it, something with straighter lines than the one I have.</p><p><img src="http://ic.pics.livejournal.com/zodarzone/9021429/638/638_original.jpg" /></p><p></p><p><img src="http://ic.pics.livejournal.com/zodarzone/9021429/822/822_original.jpg" /></p><p></p><p><img src="http://ic.pics.livejournal.com/zodarzone/9021429/1225/1225_original.jpg" /></p><p></p><p><img src="http://ic.pics.livejournal.com/zodarzone/9021429/1305/1305_original.jpg" /></p><p><br />Put simply, I can&#39;t wear it enough! It&#39;s better than I expected. I&#39;m still rather silly giddy about it, and I feel justifiably so.</p><p>The ONLY downside is that it is another latex shirt that I need helping getting into. Next time I really need one that zips up the front so I can dress myself. It not only feels weird to need that help, but it also really limits how often I get to wear it.</p>urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:zodarzone:285539War Journal Entry number 981 - Batman vs X-Men2014-04-24T16:28:14Z2014-04-24T16:28:14Z<span data-ft="{&amp;quot;tn&amp;quot;:&amp;quot;K&amp;quot;}">I haven&#39;t read much new Batman in about a decade, but my brother-in-law-to-be let me borrow The Black Mirror and Death of the Family. Despite them being by the same writer, Scott Snyder, I preferred Black Mirror significantly more. Not only did I like the art more (the visuals of Jock and Francesco Francavilla are much moodier and less 90s than Greg Capullo&#39;s), but the pacing was much better as well. Additionally, I think I&#39;m probably subconsciously favoring the pre-New 52 stories as they just feel like they have more &quot;weight.&quot; I really like how The Black Mirror felt like detective horror story, which is a perfect genre for Batman.<br /><br /><span data-ft="{&amp;quot;tn&amp;quot;:&amp;quot;K&amp;quot;}">I ended up dropping the last of the X-Men team books yesterday, I never thought I&#39;d see the day. I used to be all about the X-Men, getting every single X-related book that came out. I&#39;ll keep an eye on Amazing X-Men, that was the last hold out of the FIVE different series.<br /><br />I&#39;m still getting X-Factor and X-Force, as well as Wolverine and Nightcrawler (that&#39;s still in a probationary period as only one issue has come out so far). I also dropped Savage Wolverine, that anthology series started well but I&#39;m not interested in any of the upcoming tales.<br /><br />To shake things up, here&#39;s a scene from my favorite series, Transformers: More Than Meets the Eye.<br /><img alt="IDW_MtMtE5_MagnusTailgateAttentionDirt" src="http://ic.pics.livejournal.com/zodarzone/9021429/437/437_original.jpg" title="IDW_MtMtE5_MagnusTailgateAttentionDirt" /></span></span>urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:zodarzone:285176War Journal Entry number 979 - Minority Representation2014-04-07T16:49:08Z2014-04-07T16:49:08ZThis entry is an expansion on&nbsp;a post about how the <a href="http://thefutureisbroken.tumblr.com/post/79789842601/tiger-lily-doesnt-equal-human-torch-plus-a-very-long" rel="nofollow">ethnicity change of Tiger Lily is not equal to the ethnicity change of the Human Torch</a>. It&#39;s a good rant, but I think he lets folks off easy.<br /><br />When a historically straight white male character is changed to be more representative in a new telling of a tale, and the straight white male audience complains that they can no longer relate to the character because of the change, then they are proving WHY it is so very important. It&rsquo;s often said that a variety of representation is necessary to give minority people characters with whom they can relate, but that is false. Minority people have been relating to characters not like them for forever, because that&rsquo;s all the choices they&rsquo;ve had. Minority people ALREADY KNOW that people can empathize with others that aren&rsquo;t like them, the people that REALLY need to learn this lesson are the straight white males that have been shown time and again that their perspective is the only valid one by virtue of how much entertainment is told from that point of view. (Yes, some straight white males get this, but every time the ethnicity of a white character is changed to something else there is a disturbingly huge number of comments along the lines of not being able to relate to or respect the character any longer said with such oblivious sincerity that it demonstrates just how deeply ingrained the racism is, as well as the shocking inability to empathize with anyone else&rsquo;s viewpoint.)<br /><br />The reason that a variety of representation is necessary is NOT to give minorities their own characters JUST for them. We&rsquo;re NOT endeavoring to keep things separate which is the implication of that line of reasoning. No, the reason that a variety or representation is necessary is to validate the experiences of those minorities, in their own eyes and in the eyes of the straight white male audience that has not been pushed to see any other experience. Let&rsquo;s take bisexuality as an example. It&rsquo;s invisible because it&rsquo;s not something that you know about people when you only know them casually. Hell, you can know someone pretty well and they may never reveal this because of a fear of being judged. So without representation in media it becomes a &ldquo;secret&rdquo; classification, the general populace of heterosexuals and even homosexuals think that bisexuality isn&rsquo;t real. People that start having bisexual feelings are often confused; they feel like they have to make a choice between being heterosexual or homosexual and that they are mutually exclusive. These people struggle with something that shouldn&rsquo;t actually be a big deal whatsoever because they feel the need to choose one based on how society and people are portrayed in the media. Just imagine how worse it gets when the only available portrayals are negative or dismissive. Being bisexual doesn&rsquo;t mean someone is a ravenous predator lustfully looking at everyone as a potential fuck, nor is it just a phase that they&rsquo;ll get over once they find the right person, but that&rsquo;s what the media tells everyone. And so someone that is just realizing that they feel this way is pushed to make that arbitrary choice between heterosexuality or homosexuality, not even realizing that there is actually a complex spectrum of options available for people to explore of which bisexuality is just one valid option.<br /><br />But it&rsquo;s more than just sexuality, it&rsquo;s every single minority. As a member of any minority, when you are FINALLY lucky enough to see a character like you portrayed and they are just secondary characters AT BEST, but are typically comedic roles, villains, or just faces in a crowd, then you feel unimportant. Because no one tells tales about someone like you, you feel like your existence and therefore your whole self is not as valid, as real, or as worthwhile as those that are being told onscreen or in the books you read. You can still enjoy the works, you can feel for the characters, you can love them even though their life viewpoint is so much different than yours. But when you look at yourself you feel like nothing that you do will ever matter. The insidious thing again is that it&rsquo;s not just the minority peoples that feel like this, it&rsquo;s also the straight white males that begin to think that all those other viewpoints are less important than their own. And that&rsquo;s what we see again and again in comments and message boards, and don&rsquo;t forget politics, where straight white men can&rsquo;t even conceive of another life experience or viewpoint different from their own as being something worthwhile to even acknowledge let alone accept or celebrate.<br /><br />All of this is why it&#39;s OK to change a historically white male character to something else, but it&#39;s not OK to change a minority character to white.urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:zodarzone:284764War Journal Entry number 978 - Collector Interuptus2014-04-02T16:53:58Z2014-04-07T16:42:47ZEvery once in a while I’ve met an older comic book collector who would say they didn’t collect anything that was coming out new, only older stuff. My reaction to that was often a confused mix of pity and, I must ashamedly admit, condescension. But I may find myself at that point someday. Not right now, but I can see myself getting there eventually. I already have amassed enough to keep me occupied for many many years. <br /><br />My perspective is a bit different from some of them though, I’ve heard people say that there’s nothing out now that they enjoy or want to read, and I find that unlikely. I’m sure there is, they just aren’t aware of it. But personally I know that there is quite a bit that I want to read, that is acclaimed and awarded and that I probably would enjoy, I just can’t get it all. I can’t have everything. I’m not a library, though I’ve acted like it at times. So, yeah, there are titles I’m passing over, even titles that I’ve dropped or plan on dropping at the end of the current storyline, where it’s not only objectively good but I’m also enjoying it, but there’s just too much. There’s just too much good stuff right now.<br /><br />That’s not to say there isn’t stuff that isn’t to my taste, or that I genuinely think is poorly done or even downright bad, but I’m actively trying to focus on the good. Snark poisons the souls of those that consistently employ it as a way of social interaction.urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:zodarzone:284628War Journal Entry number 9772014-03-19T16:21:55Z2014-03-19T16:21:55Z<div data-ft="{&amp;quot;tn&amp;quot;:&amp;quot;K&amp;quot;}">If someone comes to you and says that you&rsquo;ve hurt their feelings in some ways there are a number of responses possible.<br /><br />1) Deny any personal wrongdoing. You may find yourself using the phrase &ldquo;I&rsquo;m sorry you feel that way&rdquo; as an apology that doesn&rsquo;t admit culpability.<br /><br />2) Get hurt. Say that you are now being attacked and refuse to further the conversation until your feelings have been assuaged. This is classic passive aggressive manipulation.<br /><br />3) Get defensive. This is the blatantly aggressive version of option 2. Use anger and even personal attacks to get them to withdraw their complaint and most importantly to dissuade them from ever bringing things up again.<br /><br />4) Listen to the concerns and consider them from the other person&rsquo;s point of view.<br /><br />If you&rsquo;rea guy&nbsp;reading a Feminist piece and your reactions are 1 through 3 then you really are the exact problem that they are facing. Also, if you react that way in your personal life then you are doing this whole &quot;human&quot; thing very poorly.<br /><br />This was all kicked off by a piece where a blogger said that<a href="http://bellejar.ca/2014/03/15/tired-of-talking-to-men/" rel="nofollow"> she was tired of talking about feminism to men</a> and it got me thinking.&nbsp;In brief, it&#39;s not the feminists that make it a &quot;men versus women&quot; issue, it&#39;s the men that don&#39;t make the effort to care that cause it to be framed that way. We need to be better.</div>urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:zodarzone:284230War Journal Entry number 976 - Cosplay2014-03-06T17:50:31Z2014-03-06T17:50:31Z<p>I&#39;ve been hesitant to get into the cosplay thing (i.e. dressing up as characters, typically as part of attending conventions or other pop culture related events). A lot of that is due to my body issues and a lack of characters that I&#39;d feel comfortable dressing as. I don&#39;t know if I&#39;m over the body issues, but once I decided I could dress as a male version of a female character (colloquially known as genderbent cosplay) it became easier to see myself dressed up. So the first thing I&rsquo;m working on is the aforementioned Dark Phoenix. I&rsquo;ll probably pair the top with a black kilt, there are some good looking ones I&rsquo;ve been eying.</p><p>I found a shirt on Etsy that got me thinking about doing something as Rogue, another member of the X-Men. I tried to link to the shirt but I guess it&rsquo;s sold now. I should be able to find another eventually. Rogue was one of the major entry characters for me when I started reading Uncanny X-Men in 1990, she really perfectly sums up so many feelings of being a teenager.</p><p>If I dressed as a male version of Yuri from the<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dirty_Pair" rel="nofollow"> Dirty Pair</a>, well, that would probably only be for at home and private parties.</p>urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:zodarzone:283974War Journal Entry number 975 - Etsy2014-03-01T17:24:33Z2014-03-01T17:24:33ZHow does anyone every get off of Etsy? Seriously, it&#39;s crazy difficult to pull myself away, I keep finding more and more cutely fun things that I want.<br /><br />I&#39;m really really really looking forward to the latex Dark Phoenix costume that I ordered from Vengeance Designs. I&#39;m just having her do it as a shirt <a href="https://www.etsy.com/listing/113952734/latex-cosplay-telekinetic-firebird" rel="nofollow">instead of the full catsuit shown here</a>. I plan on wearing it to <a href="http://www.clevelandconcoction.org/" rel="nofollow">Cleveland ConCoction</a>.<br /><br />Becca thinks I should also do a kilted version of Captain Reynolds from Firefly/Serenity, and I certainly can&#39;t argue with that. That would be pretty darn popular too.<br /><br />OK, things to do, socializations to have.urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:zodarzone:283868War Journal Entry number 974 - Shut up and give them your money.2014-01-15T01:41:52Z2014-01-15T01:41:52ZSomebody I know is doing an Indiegogo campaign for a good book, <a href="http://igg.me/p/more-shibari-you-can-use/x/6069625" rel="nofollow">Shibari You Can Use</a>. It&#39;s worth checking out.<br /><br />Over at Kickstarter, here&#39;s a <a href="http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/951298242/en-tenebres-issue-1" rel="nofollow">Gothic murder mystery</a> I&#39;m looking forward to reading. I bought a preview book at the Cleveland Comic Con and it was good stuff.<br /><br />Another Kickstarter I might go in for, a graphic novel where <a href="http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/656735505/metaphase-a-gn-inspired-by-heroes-w-down-syndrome" rel="nofollow">the writer got inspiration from his son with Down&#39;s syndrome</a>.<br /><br />And one more Kickstarter, this time an artist is detailing <a href="http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/298122902/something-terrible-by-dean-trippe" rel="nofollow">how superheroes helped him get over sexual abuse</a>.<br /><br />Go get some.urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:zodarzone:283512War Journal Entry number 9732013-12-03T04:35:50Z2013-12-03T04:35:50Z<p>Do me a favor, please. The next time I say something thoughtful or considerate don't judge me, don't think of me as a good person, just think of the statement by itself.</p><p>My point is don't make a judgement about a person based on limited experience. You see a few nice things online, but that could be a crafted persona to cover up their tiny little selfish heart. Or you see or hear that someone did such and such mean thing, well, they could have done countless kind things of which you are unaware. The only real way to judge someone is by how they act when they aren't aware that anyone is watching them. </p><p>And that there is the bitter truth of it all, you may never really know a person's true self. Hell, it's likely most people don't even know their own true selves so how are others expected to find it. We're all multifaceted mirrors around a hidden core, so be careful when imaging what you think is inside.</p>